Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation by Mixing Ice and Fire Textures

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create a Unique Photo Manipulation via Mixture of Ice and Fire Textures. Along the way, I will show some interesting ways to manipulate texture via image adjustment tool and free transform tool. This is an intermediate level tutorial, have a try!

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in CS6 – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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Step 1

Create a new document sized 860px * 1140px with black background, load the metal image into Photoshop and select a piece as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, resize it to cover the canvas. Then apply the following Accented Edges filter to give it a special effect:

and here is the effect so far:

Use a soft eraser, remove the edges of this layer as shown below:

Add the following 3 adjustments layers on top:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Load the model image into Photoshop and cut out the head area, paste it onto our document as shown below:

Apply the following Surface Blur settings to smooth out the skin a bit:

Use a soft eraser, erase the edges of the face as shown below:

Add the following adjustment layers as clipping mask to this model layer:

Black and white

Layer mask on the black and white adjustment layer:

Levels

Layer mask on the levels adjustment layer:

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

We will add some ice texture onto image. Load the ice 1 image into Photoshop and use the Lasso Tool to select a piece as shown below:

Copy and paste into the document, and set it as a clipping mask to the face layer:

Apply the following Crystallize filter to add some crystal effect into the ice texture:

Apply the following black and white adjustment to this ice layer:

Change the blending mode of this ice texture layer to “vivid light”:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s go to the fire image and select the fire with the quick selection tool as shown below:

We can then copy the fire texture over and place it under the face layer, use the free transform tool to resize it to fit the shape of the face:

Add some fire texture over the head as well:

Step 5

Now we want to give this photo some further surreal effect by adding some “Dark Energy” around the face. To do this, simply duplicate the fire texture layer once and apply the following black and white adjustment:

and you will the fire texture changed into some black/grey lines, as shown below:

We can then duplicate this layer a few times, and attach them around the face:

Step 6

We can further add some ice texture over the face. Load the “ice” 2 image (pick one from the pack) into Photoshop, and select a portion with the Lasso Tool as shown below:

Copy and paste a few of those selections onto our document, change the layer blending mode to “screen” for those new ice layers and use the free tranform tool to adjust their shape as you see fit. Here is the effect so far:

Step 7

We’re almost done! To fine-tune the effect, I added the following image adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Selective color

Curves

And here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

My name is James and I have been using Photoshop since version 5.0. I am the owner of this blog and writes majority of the Photoshop tutorials and articles. If you have any questions about the Photoshop tutorials, feel free to leave a comment and I will try my best to answer it.

Thank you so much for these tutorials!! They are really helping me expand my knowledge of my Photoshop, (I use CS4) and they are really helping me tap into my creative side when I feel I’ve hit a wall.

http://www.psdvault.com PSD Vault

No problem, I’m glad that the tutorial helps!

cloud

how can i make the fire blue too :| ? can make it pink but not blue.

abraxon

this is a really great effect. thank you.

http://www.freetemplatesonline.com/ Stacy

awesome tutorial! thanks

Majid

Thank you

dimpi pinto

gud one <3

Sauptik Marik

how did you get the red color after adding layer mask to the black and white adjustment layer? help!!

frenchvann

thank you so much this was fun! im working with cs so the blk&wht adjustment layer threw me off a lil but i made it work i love the turn out.